Markus Andrews

All but “essential” UK overseas aid spending has been halted in an unprecedented Treasury move which a senior Conservative MP is warning will “cost lives”.Aid organisations and politicians have condemned the crackdown – sparked by the cut to allocating only 0.5 per cent of GDP and the growing cost of relief work in Ukraine.Departments have been told to suspend “non-essential aid spending” until Boris Johnson’s replacement as prime minister is in post, because the lower cap is about to be breachedSam Nadel, head of government relations at Oxfam, warned that help for Ukraine “cannot come at the expense of responding to other emergencies around the world such as in east Africa and Yemen”.David Lammy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, said: “At a time of chronic global food shortages, drought, rising prices and conflict in so many parts of the world, it’s extraordinary that UK developmental aid appears to have been suspended.Recommended“Lives literally appear to be dependent on the Conservative party leadership elections.”And Andrew Mitchell, the former Tory international development secretary, said: “To withhold spending on life-saving projects in this way will undoubtedly cost lives and further impair the UK’s reputation.”Simon Starling, director of policy at Bond, the UK network for aid groups, told The Independent: “If the government sticks to the diminished 0.5 per cent budget while new crises like the Ukraine war emerge, more and more people will be denied the critical humanitarian and development support the UK promised to provide.”The government said ministers are “prioritising overseas aid funding such as providing humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine”.The Conservatives broke their own manifesto commitment by slashing aid spending from 0.7 per cent of national income – with no date for returning to that figure, despite a legal commitment.The also axed the Department for International Development, downgrading the priority given to aid within the new Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is also shifting strategy from tackling poverty to what she calls the “geopolitics” of countering China’s vast “belt and road” programme.Now, in an instruction to departments, the Treasury has warned that the 0.5 per cent cap could be breached because of the bills for helping Ukraine and resettling refugees from Afghanistan.It says controversial spending decisions must be put on hold until a new prime minister is in place – making aid spending a dilemma for either Ms Truss, or her rival Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor.Mr Johnson’s spokesman denied the block on some projects would be “life threatening”, insisting only “non urgent spending” will be halted.RecommendedHe rejected funding humanitarian aid for Ukraine separately – to avoid further cuts for the developing world – arguing spending must remain “within budget”.“People would expect us to take heed of the amount of money we have available to spend without adding additional debt,” the spokesman said. More

Boris Johnson says French staff shortages and a motorway accident – not Brexit – were to blame for the misery of holidaymakers hit by long delays at Kent ports.The UK’s departure from the European Union means travellers face more rigorous passport and other checks before crossing the Channel, where previously they were largely waved through.But the prime minister’s spokesman said they did not “necessitate” the huge queues seen at the weekend, while declining to say they played no part at all.The problems were caused by a combination of factors “including a shortage of French border control staff and there was a serious accident on the M20”.“These are not scenes that we think are necessitated by leaving the European Union,” the spokesman said, adding: “We think we have operational procedures and processes in place that do not need to see these levels of queues.”RecommendedNo 10 also stepped back from calling on France to stop stamping the passports of travelling Britons – which Paris says is required now the UK is a “third country”, not an EU member.“It is for, obviously, individual governments to decide how to carry out checks at the border. Our view is that these should be done proportionately and sensibly given the good working relationships that we have,” the spokesman said.Asked whether the government believed the French approach was proportionate and sensible, the spokesman said: “It’s not for me to pass judgment.”He was also unable to say why the Port of Dover’s £33m application for new infrastructure to cope with longer checks and more queuing was rejected, as reported.The port had been given extra staffing booths, more parking spaces and two further lanes for freight traffic, Downing Street said.Fears are growing that the congestion seen at Dover and Folkestone will become ‘the new normal” at weekends throughout the rest of the summer season.Motorists and truck drivers must clear French border controls on this side of the Channel, as holiday traffic returns to levels not seen since before the Covid pandemic, in 2019,Checks by The Independent found a typical time of 90 seconds for a family of four in a car to have their documents checked – probably three times longer than before the post-Brexit rules took effect.The police are required to check every passport, stamp it with the day of departure and check both the purpose of the visit and that the traveller has an onward or return ticket, plus sufficient funds for their stay.RecommendedThe Port of Dover said traffic is “flowing normally this morning” and that the French booths were “well staffed”.But Toby Howe, senior highways manager at Kent County Council said, of the rest of the summer: “It’s a very vulnerable situation, it takes very little to cause further issues.” More

Sunak accuses Truss of putting national debt on ‘credit card’ for future generations to payRishi Sunak and Liz Truss are taking part in their first head-to-head televised debate tonight after a senior MP made cutting remarks about the “puerile” Conservative Party leadership race.The pair are in Stoke-on-Trent to take part in the BBC One debate. The broadcaster’s journalists said that “stakes are high” as Ms Truss is far ahead in opinion polls.It comes after Cabinet Office minister Johnny Mercer warned that the Tories will be out of power in two years’ time if they continue on the “current trajectory” of “embarrassing” episodes during the contest.His call for his fellow MPs to “raise the standards” came after MP Angela Richardson said that she had muted culture secretary Nadine Dorries’ on Twitter over her criticism of Mr Sunak’s expensive clothes.Ms Dorries tweeted: “Liz Truss will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire Accessories. Meanwhile…“Rishi visits Teeside in Prada shoes worth £450 and sported £3,500 bespoke suit as he prepared for crunch leadership vote.”Next week, 160,00 Tory members will vote on whether Mr Sunak or Ms Truss will succeed Boris Johnson.RecommendedShow latest update

1658789292Thanks for following today’s live updatesAisha Rimi25 July 2022 23:481658789115Snap debate poll shows which candidate viewers think performed best in elections debateThe poll, conducted by Opinium – a strategic insight agency, indicates a close ties between the two candidates. Aisha Rimi25 July 2022 23:451658788515Voices: One thing became clear, that Sunak and Truss visibly hate each otherRishi Sunak and Liz Truss really do hate each other. It’s the reality TV hit of the summer.Does it matter, anymore, which one of them wins? Will anyone even know? The next election is only two years away, by which point anyone who watched the BBC leaderships debate will still be so haunted by the program’s first fifteen seconds that they will be incapable of any meaningful interaction with the world around them.Read the full opinion piece: More

Rishi Sunak has promised to ban China’s controversial Confucius Institutes from the UK, labelling the country the “biggest-long term threat to Britain”.The announcement would signal a major hardening of government policy on China if Mr Sunak becomes the next prime minister, following pressure from a vocal caucus of Tory backbenchers.In recent months Mr Sunak’s Tory leadership rival Liz Truss has also taken an increasingly hardline approach on China in her role as foreign secretary.This latest announcement will be seen as a move to firm up the former chancellor’s national security credentials, as he promises to close all 30 of China’s Confucius Institutes in the UK. More

Sir Keir Starmer will today put economic recovery at the heart of his pitch for the next general election, declaring that Labour’s priorities in government will be “growth, growth, growth”.His comments are likely to act as a red rag to the left of his party, as he seeks to shake off the long-standing accusation that whereas Conservatives aim to increase the size of the pie, Labour is interested only in how it is shared out.And he will confront environmentalist critics of the growth model, insisting that it is possible to increase the size of the economy without giving up on net zero carbon emission aspirations.The Labour leader’s determination to fight the next general election on the battleground of economic growth is a signal of the extent to which Mr Starmer believes that the UK’s parlous condition allows him to challenge the Tories on their traditional home turf.He will say that 12 years of moribund economic performance under Conservative-led governments has left the UK economy “weaker than its competitors, less resilient, brittle”.RecommendedAs a result, Britain is more vulnerable than comparable nations to the current cost of living crisis and spiralling inflation.But he is likely to infuriate those on the Labour left who fear that a concentration on growth will favour bosses, corporations and shareholders to the exclusion of more disadvantaged members of society.Acknowledging that his approach represents a challenge to his party’s instincts, Mr Starmer will say: “It pushes us to care as much about growth and productivity as we have done about redistribution and investment in the past. Not to hark back to our old ideas in the face of new challenges.”He will argue that “low-growth economies can’t rise to meet the challenges of the future”, including the threat of climate change.And he will say: “We will not be distracted by the siren calls – from the right or the left – that say economic growth and net zero do not go together.”Mr Starmer’s listing of “growth, growth, growth” as his top priorities seems a deliberate echo of Tony Blair’s battlecry of “education, education, education” in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide election.Speaking in Liverpool ahead of this evening’s BBC debate between the contenders in a Tory leadership battle dominated by tax cuts and immigration, he will say that “rebooting our economy” will be the “defining task” of the next Labour government.He will announce plans for an Industrial Strategy Council, established on a statutory footing as a “permanent part of the landscape that sets out strategic national priorities that go beyond the political cycle, holds us to account for our decisions and builds confidence for investors that will boost long-term growth and productivity”.And he will say that there is “no task more central to my ambitions for Britain than making the country and its people better off”, adding: “This is why I am clear Labour will fight the next election on economic growth.”Reviewing the last decade of economic performance, Mr Starmer will say: “Whether it’s the cost of living or recovering from the pandemic, our economy is weaker than its competitors. Less resilient. Brittle. And, ultimately, we are all poorer for it.”By contrast, Labour would aim for a growth that is “strong, secure and fair”, maximising the contribution of all parts of society and all areas of the country, he will say.“Strong, because it will build a foundation where every business and every person plays a role. “Secure, because it will produce good jobs that don’t leave people feeling insecure. “Fair, because it will unlock the potential of every place – every community, every town and every city.”The issue of fairness “strikes at the structural weakness of our economy”, he will say, arguing that “an economy can grow and leave some if its people behind, but a nation based on contribution cannot grow in that way”.Mr Starmer will accuse Tory leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of relying on “magic-money-tree economics”.Referring to Monday’s TV debate, he will say: “You will see a clear contrast between my Labour Party and the Thatcherite cosplay on display tonight.Recommended“The difference between a Labour Party ready to take Britain forward and a Tory party that wants to take us back into the past. Between Labour growth and Tory stagnation.“That will be the choice at the next election, and we are ready.” More

The candidates for the Conservative leadership are preparing for their first TV head-to-head debate, which could play a decisive role in determining who succeeds Boris Johnson as prime minister.With many of the 160,000 Tory members likely to vote as soon as ballot papers arrive next week, the BBC showdown at 9pm on Monday could be the only real chance for Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to make their pitch direct to those determining their fate.The pair will clash over tax and immigration, but Labour insisted they should be grilled on how they would fund their “fantasy economics” plans, whether they would abolish non-dom status and how they would help families facing a £1,000 leap in energy bills this autumn.Ms Truss’s plans for £30bn of immediate tax cuts, funded from borrowing, came under renewed scrutiny after three members of Margaret Thatcher’s last cabinet – Chris Patten, Norman Lamont and Sir Malcolm Rifkind – said that the “Iron Lady” would not have approved of them.On the eve of the debate, Ms Truss set out proposals for a network of “full-fat freeports”, offering tax breaks, light-touch planning rules and scaled-back regulation in the hope of attracting investment and growth.RecommendedAnd Mr Sunak took a tough line on China, branding the east Asian country “the biggest long-term threat to Britain” and declaring he would ban its Confucius Institute cultural centres from the UK.The weekend saw an increasingly bitter clash over immigration, as each pitched to the right in the hope of picking up votes from the Tory “selectorate” who will choose the country’s PM and who, according to polls, have a significantly more hostile attitude to migrants than the population at large.Mr Sunak’s plans to house asylum seekers on detention ships off the coast of the UK and to withhold aid from developing countries that do not take back nationals who are denied the right to stay were branded “cruel” by Oxfam and “beyond the pale” by Christian Aid.And Truss allies said the proposal to house migrants on cruise ships rather than in hotels would breach domestic and international law, effectively creating a chain of prison ships in areas trying to attract tourists.Ms Truss said she would seek to sign up more countries to Rwanda-style agreements to accept asylum seekers deported from the UK, despite the fact that the scheme has cost £120m and failed to remove a single migrant since its introduction in April.The foreign secretary said that her proposal for “designated investment zones” would unleash growth and innovation in areas right across the UK, attracting hi-tech industries such as AI. They also represent a swipe at Mr Sunak’s scheme for freeports, which she said gave Whitehall the power to pick winners and losers.Under the scheme, the government would work with local communities to identify sites ripe for redevelopment, with a preference for previously developed “brownfield” sites.She said that the scheme would be a cornerstone of her economic strategy and would help create new model towns like those of Bournville and Saltaire, the workers’ villages established by philanthropist businessmen in the Victorian era.But her plan to pare back planning restrictions and regulation will raise concerns about poor-quality development and environmental damage, as well as the possibility of business simply being poached away from areas outside the zones.Ms Truss said: “As prime minister, I will be laser-focused on turbocharging business investment and delivering the economic growth our country desperately needs.“We can’t carry on allowing Whitehall to pick the winners and losers, like we’ve seen with the current freeport model. Instead, by creating these new investment zones we will finally prove to businesses that we’re committed to their futures and incentivise them to stimulate the investment that will help deliver for hardworking people.”Mr Sunak promised a major hardening of government policy on China, seeking to outflank Ms Truss’s own confrontational stance towards Beijing as foreign secretary.The former chancellor said he would close all 30 Confucius Institutes in the UK, which critics have labelled propaganda tools at a time of worsening relations between China and the West.Mr Sunak accused China of “stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities” as well as bullying Taiwan and breaching the human rights of people in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.He said he would review all UK-China research partnerships and expand MI5’s reach to counter Chinese industrial espionage. And he would require all British universities to disclose any foreign funding partnerships worth more than £50,000.“I will stop China taking over our universities, and get British companies and public institutions the cybersecurity they need,” said Sunak. And I will work with president Biden and other world leaders to transform the West’s resilience to the threat China poses.”Truss supporter Sir Iain Duncan Smith, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, branded the former chancellor’s tough stance towards Beijing “surprising”.“After all, over the last two years, the Treasury has pushed hard for an economic deal with China,” he said. “This is despite China sanctioning myself and four UK parliamentarians, despite China brutally cracking down on peaceful democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan, illegally occupying the South China Sea, committing genocide on the Uighurs and increasing its influence in our universities.“After such a litany, I have one simple question: where have you been over the last two years?”A spokesperson for Ms Truss said: “Liz has strengthened Britain’s position on China since becoming foreign secretary and helped lead the international response to increased Chinese aggression. This will only continue when she becomes prime minister and seeks to expand her network of liberty around the world.”With polls giving Ms Truss a comfortable lead among Tory members, Sunak supporters are aware that their favourite will have to make a big impact at the BBC debate if he is to preserve his hopes of overhauling his rival and be named PM on 5 September.The pair pulled out of an earlier leadership debate during the MPs’ rounds of voting amid fears that highly personal “blue-on-blue” attacks were damaging the Conservative brand and making it more difficult for the party to unite under its new leader.But the live broadcast from Stoke-on-Trent, moderated by newscaster Sophie Raworth and expected to attract millions of viewers, will be the first of a series of televised clashes in the remainder of the campaign, including a second head-to-head on Talk TV on Tuesday.Labour’s shadow minister without portfolio, Conor McGinn, said the candidates must be subjected to tough questioning, not least on their efforts to distance themselves from the record of the Johnson administration in which they both served.Recommended“Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are two continuity candidates, stooges of the Johnson administration whose fingerprints are all over the state the country finds itself in today,” said Mr McGinn. “Neither offers working people anything other than more of the same.“Both must now come clean about their plans. Rather than simply trash their own Tory record of the last 12 years or rely on the fantasy economics of unfunded giveaways, both must tonight set out fully costed plans to tackle the Tory cost of living crisis and grow Britain’s economy.” More

Boris Johnson’s plans to hand out large numbers of peerages before stepping down as prime minister has been denounced by a former Speaker of the House of Lords as “part of a trend to trash constitutional norms”.Baroness Hayman said there was anger across the Upper House at the prospect of dozens of the PM’s friends and allies being made Lords.And another ex-Lord Speaker Lord Fowler – formerly a Conservative cabinet minister – said the appointment of Tory donors was bringing the system into “some kind of contempt” and undermining public support for the unelected chamber.Reports suggest that the outgoing prime minister is planning to create dozens of new Lords in a political honours list in the coming weeks, followed by a resignation honours list when he finally steps down in September.His plans have prompted the current Lord Speaker to write to the contenders to succeed Johnson to appeal for “restraint” in the creation of new peers in a House which has more than 800 members at a time when the stated ambition is to reduce it to 600.RecommendedLord McFall urged Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to follow the example of Theresa May, who appointed just 43 peers in her three years in office, rather than Johnson, who has already ennobled 86.Among those said feature in Mr Johnson’s latest plans for peerages are billionaire Tory donor Michael Hintze, former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre and Churchill’s grandson Sir Nicholas Soames.Former Lord Speaker Baroness Hayman told BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend: “The proposal is part of a trend to trash constitutional norms.“So in that sense, I think it’s a very bad idea. It has all sorts of grave consequences. And I’ve actually been surprised at how much anger there is across the House, basically to put a large number of predominantly Tory peers into the House now.“Usually, there is enough respect and understanding of the importance of balance and restraint.”Lady Hayman said that Mr Johnson had “never been a great fan of the House of Lords”.“The House of Lords has provided difficulties for the government,” she said. “No government likes that.“Most prime ministers understand because it’s actually good for democracy for that to happen. I’m not sure Boris Johnson understand that having a challenging House of Lords actually improve” government policy and improves legislation.”Lord Fowler told Times Radio that Mr Johnson’s plans were “potentially disastrous”.“I think we’ve got to this stage, when we are having to ask whether the appointment system in the House of Lords is fit for purpose,” he said. “And frankly … at the moment, the answer that question seems to be ‘No’.“It just brings the whole system into some kind of contempt. Peers are being appointed because they’ve made contributions – financial contributions – to the party, and all kinds of other reasons.“It’s really no way to run the House of Lords. And most of all, it brings the House of Lords into some contempt.“I think, at the moment, the chances are that it hasn’t got the respect of the public and we should be as a country rather concerned about that.”Conservative peer and constitutional historian Lord Norton of Louth has tabled a private members bill which would give more power to the House of Lords Appointments Commission, requiring prime ministers to seek its advice before nominating new peers.The continued growth of the upper chamber was “overburdening” the Lords and introducing “problems of quality control”, he said.“If my bill had been enacted and was now in force, then (Johnson) wouldn’t be able to rush forward with a list because the commission would be in a position to put nominations on hold,” he told World This Weekend.“Under the constitutional position at the moment, there is no formal constraint on the prime minister,Recommended“The emphasis really should be on quality not on quantity, because what really matters is the quality of debate in the Lords rather than how we vote.” More

The attorney general has been publicly contradicted by her own department over whether the government’s Rwanda deportations policy is illegal.Suella Braverman last week claimed the UK needed to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to go ahead with the removals, arguing that they would be found unlawful under the treaty. But Ms Braverman’s department has now again claimed that the policy is legal after all, as it prepares to defend it in court.Labour said that Ms Braverman had “debased her office in the pursuit of her political ambitions”, resulting in an “absolute shambles”. The attorney general made the comments just hours before being knocked out of the Tory leadership contest, coming bottom in a ballot of MPs despite her attempt to drum up support by attacking human rights.RecommendedShe had called on the UK to ditch Article 3 rights, under which people are protected from torture and inhuman treatment.Her comments were branded “an outrageous assault on this most basic of rules against human cruelty” by campaigners.Ms Braverman’s intervention during her leadership campaign raised eyebrows because, as attorney general, she is responsible for laying out the government’s legal position and was claiming that its policy was against the law.Asked by Labour to put the department’s position in writing before parliament, Ms Braverman’s deputy, solicitor general Edward Timpson, wrote in reply: “It is the government’s position that the migration and economic development partnership is fully compatible with all of our domestic and international legal obligations, including ECHR rights.”The government will defend the plan at a High Court hearing on 5 September, the same day the new Tory leader will be announced.Documents lodged with the court this week show that the Home Office pushed the policy through despite repeated concerns from a slew of top UK government officials.The policy, the brainchild of Priti Patel, will see asylum seekers who arrive on British shores in small boats removed to Rwanda to claim asylum there, with no recourse to return.Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general, told The Independent: “A matter of days ago, we saw the attorney general saying it was necessary to quit the European Convention on Human Rights in order to implement the government’s Rwanda policy. “Now we have her office saying the exact opposite in the context of the ongoing litigation. “This is not just more evidence of how Suella Braverman has debased her office in the pursuit of her political ambitions, but how a government obsessed with its own power struggles has become totally detached from the task of running the country. They are an absolute shambles.”RecommendedThe first flight under the policy was due to take off on 14 June, but was cancelled after a last-minute intervention from the European Court of Human Rights. Polling by YouGov conducted in April found that 42 per cent of the public are against the plan, while 35 per cent support it. It has also been condemned by the UN high commissioner for refugees, who said it would amount to the UK breaching its international obligations. More